NRB starts distributing new notes

KATHMANDU, SEP 25:

The central bank has started distributing fresh currency notes to financial institutions to meet the demand for crisp notes during Dashain.

Dashain is less than two weeks away and public have started flocking financial institutions to get new and crisp bank notes of smaller denominations. “Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has estimated the demand for fresh notes to be worth Rs 30 billion this year, and has already started distributing notes to NRB’s regional offices, financial institutions, and note funds since the past one week,” said spokesperson of NRB Bhaskar Mani Gyanwali.

Due to the tradition of giving new and crisp notes to younger ones as a blessing during Dashain, fresh notes are in high demand in the festive season. Since more notes in smaller denominations are required, NRB is supplying mostly notes of Rs five, Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100 denominations.

NRB will provide the notes to financial institutions based on the size, such as commercial banks can get up to Rs 100 million, while finance companies will be provided up to Rs 500,000. The public can obtain fresh notes either from NRB’s Thapathali office or from major branches of financial institutions inside valley. Outside the capital, NRB’s regional offices and branches of financial institutions will provide new notes.

“This year also, there will be enough notes to meet the festive demand. There are more such currency notes in NRB’s vault which will be released if required,” said Gyanwali.

At present, there are currency notes worth Rs 219 billion in circulation including notes worth Rs 28 billion in the financial institutions’ vaults. Every year, demand for fresh notes increases. Last year, NRB estimated total demand for fresh notes to be at around Rs 25 billion.

Four years ago, on the eve of Dashain, financial institutions were unable to meet public demand for fresh notes due to lack of bank notes as NRB was not able to provide enough cash. The cash shortage was so acute that financial institutions had to put a limit on cash withdrawals. However, since then NRB has been able to effectively manage the cash demand during the festive season.

But at present, destruction of newly printed paper currencies due to mishandling in Dashain is an issue of concern. NRB has urged public to handle notes carefully as more than half of the notes of smaller denominations circulated come back to the central bank in a sorry state.

Source: THT